RED WING, Minn. (AP) – The number of eagles inhabiting a proposed wind farm in Goodhue County may be crucial to the project’s future.

Developer Goodhue Wind says a survey of the 12,000-acre site near Red Wing shows seven eagle nests. State biologists have counted ten nests. The number of eagles is key to whether the developer will get a federal permit to kill or injure a specified number of birds. It would allow Goodhue Wind to move forward with the project without adversely affecting the overall eagle population in Minnesota.

The Star Tribune says the federal permit process was developed in 2009 as a compromise between the demand for clean wind power and concerns over the estimated hundreds of thousands of birds and bats that they kill each year.